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In desperate need of another big man, the Green Bay Phoenix have extended a scholarship offer to 6’9” forward Vance Johnson, a sophomore at Northeast Community College.

Northeast, which is located in Norfolk, Nebraska, is the same JUCO as the one listed on current Green Bay walk-on Kaharri Carter’s player bio on the Phoenix official website.

Originally from Chicago, Johnson helped his team to a 21-10 overall record while leading the team in both scoring (13.6 per game) and rebounding (9.0) this season. He also averaged 1.9 assists and nearly a block per game in 17.3 minutes of action and was named to the All-Region Second Team this past season.

Johnson does most of his work in the paint – he led the team in shooting at 60.2% from the floor – but has shown he is capable of stepping out and knocking down a mid-range jumper. He is also a decent free throw shooter for a big man converting 69.5% of his attempts from the charity stripe this past season. His highlight reel showcases athletic dunks and volleyball spike type blocks.

He has seen his recruiting explode over the past few days adding offers from Green Bay, Bradley, Evansville, Arkansas-Little Rock, and New Mexico State just this week alone. He also has scholarship offers from Milwaukee and Kent State. He has set three official visits so far according to JucoRecruiting.com: Arkansas-Litter Rock (3/25), New Mexico State (4/7), and Milwaukee (4/16).

With the graduation of Kenneth Lowe, Green Bay is in need of an athletic big man to provide interior offense and rim protection on defense. With senior Kerem Kanter being the only returning post player, Johnson would almost assuredly contribute right away next season. As of right now the Phoenix only have three players taller than 6’6” on the roster for next season: Kanter (6’9”) along with stretch four forwards David Jesperson (6’8”) and incoming freshman Will Chevalier (6’8”).

As a two year JUCO player Johnson will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Green Bay has two open scholarships available to replace the six outgoing seniors of Lowe, Turner Botz, Tevin Findlay, Jamar Hurdle, Charles Cooper, and Warren Jones. Redshirt freshman Anthony Brown will also not return next season.

The Phoenix already have five players committed for the 2017 class – Chevalier, PJ Pipes and Trevian Bell as high school commitments as well as JUCO guard Paul Turner and Marquette transfer Sandy Cohen.